“Whaaa? So I did fall into water…” It was incomprehensible. Mariela’s best guess was that she’d somehow drifted to this place. For some reason, she stretched her hand toward the water-filled window. “Ack, there really is water!” When she stretched her hand toward the pane separating the room from the sea outside and touched it, she found not glass, but liquid. The vertical surface of the water rippled where she’d felt it, as if a stone had been dropped there. “Huh? This…isn’t a dream; the water feels cold. Umm, some kinda strange world?” With a splish-splash, Mariela plunged her hand into the bottom of the window and pulled it back again. If she violently struck the water, spray would come flying out, but mysteriously, the liquid didn’t flood the room. “This is bad. I can’t swim.” That was the least of her troubles, though. Mariela was the only one in this room, so no one was around to voice a sensible opinion like “Even if you could swim, could you escape this strange place?” Splash-splash-splash. It was funny how the spray that flew into the room moved horizontally and returned to the vertical surface of the water. When she spontaneously started playing with the water, a fish approached. Could it have thought the wriggling surface meant food? “Whoa, it’s huuuge!” As Mariela jumped back in a fluster, the fish grazed the spot where her hand had been. It was so big it covered the window, and it swam shockingly fast as it left. It was most likely some type of monster. “Scary. Even if I could swim, I dunno if I’d be able to reach the surface…” To the very end, Mariela was fixated on the swimming part. Although her point of consternation was a bit off, her conclusion that she couldn’t escape through the windows was correct. After the titanic fish swam away, Mariela turned to look around the room and made a guess that this was the top floor of a tall tower. Underwater, the light shone in one direction only. If hardly any time had passed since Mariela had come here, wouldn’t that make it the illumination of the setting sun? In that case, this was probably the southeast tower of an enormous structure. The seawater made it tough to see, but Mariela was just barely able to make out the surrounding forest greenery and two other towers at a right angle from each other. Taking a deep breath, Mariela tried to sort out her thoughts. The unusually humid air here had a damp smell that carried the scent of the forest near the shrine. Mariela felt this odd place was definitely linked to that bog. “If I just sit here, all that’ll happen is an empty stomach.” No one was here but Mariela, nor could she sense any other presence nearby. The place was probably safe, but she’d seen Edgan and the other members of the Black Iron Freight Corps falling into the water, too. It would be wise to hurry and join up with them. “There’s only one staircase, huh? It would’ve been so much easier if I’d washed up farther down.” The circular room had a single set of stairs, which led down. The spiraling steps built to run along the wall of the tower were wider than Mariela’s arm spread, but the center of the tower was an atrium that allowed her to peer down toward the bottom. Torches lining the tower’s walls illuminated Mariela’s feet at regular intervals. Still, whatever awaited at the bottom of the winding path was too distant to be seen, which made the whole thing a little frightening. Mariela didn’t even have the materials for a monster-warding potion since the supplies had been stored on the raptors’ saddlebags. However, Mariela was not without an ally. “Come forth, salamander, spirit of flames!” Mariela charged the ring she wore on the middle finger of her right hand with magical power. If the salamander was with her, the surroundings would be lit even without the torches, and the spirit also seemed stronger than her. Mariela called to the salamander, but… “…It’s not coming.” It didn’t appear. “Huuuh. Maybe it’s still incarnated somewhere else?” In return for leading Mariela to her master, she had used a large quantity of magical power to give the fire spirit its salamander form. It had seemed happy to appear even in the body of a small lizard, and it scampered around as it guided Mariela and the others toward that marshland. Mariela would’ve thought it had exhausted the energy she’d given to it by now, but it didn’t seem too unbelievable that it hadn’t. Although temporary, as long as it was in a body, the spirit couldn’t readily pop up somewhere or disappear. Like any other corporeal being, it would have to walk to reach Mariela. That, or wait to be summoned again after its magical power ran out and it went home. “I-it’s fine! I’ll be okay by myself. The stairs only go one way, and if I head down, I’ll meet up with everyone! …But preparation is important. For now, I’m gonna look for things that seem useful and then take the stairs.” It was easy to tell Mariela was just doing her best to put on a brave face. She sighed at the endless spiral staircase and searched around the room for anything helpful. 02 Trudge, trudge, round and round. Trudge, trudge, round and round. How much time had Mariela spent walking down the winding steps? “Maybe it’d be better not to get dizzy when I’m hungry.” Mariela spoke to herself as she held her empty stomach and sank to the floor in a room at the middle of the tower. The top level had provided nothing but moss and ivy growing on the wall inside and aquatic plants flourishing outside. All Mariela had managed to collect was aquatic vegetation, not familiar medicinal herbs like daigis or bromominthra. Worst of all, the plants tasted a little too strong for her liking, so they weren’t suitable as ingredients for food. “I’m only eating these as a last resort…” What Mariela had harvested as a last resort were the seeds of an aquatic plant called gepla. The small, tuft-like seeds resembling foxtail millet contained a lot of oil and were highly nutritious, but they weren’t good to eat because of their foul, fishy smell. It was the kind of thing frog monsters preferred to eat. Perhaps because the plants grew on shallow watersides, there had been many around the water windows’ borders. Mariela fastened the gepla seeds to her waist with thin fibers wrapped together from a strong, soft plant known as rope ivy. Since rope ivy could be used in place of a standard cord, she’d twined a large quantity around her waist with the thought that it would probably come in handy in one way or another. She also put its leaves around her waist while she was at it. If you dried the fleshy leaves of rope ivy, they would become porous like a sponge. This gave them many uses, such as soaking up water or helping to start a fire. But at the end of the day, Mariela just looked like she was wearing a grass skirt. Déjà vu. It was a little nostalgic. Although she’d been working her way down the spiral staircase in this completely unfashionable garb for a few hours now, she still couldn’t see where the steps ended. When this middle room had come into view, Mariela had been overjoyed, thinking she’d finally reached the base of the tower. That excitement had been short-lived, however. The dismay brought on by the realization that she was nowhere near the bottom had caused Mariela to sink to the floor. This new area resembled the room on the top floor, but the eight windows were long narrow slits vertically divided into threes that Mariela’s head wouldn’t be able to fit through. If the sun were still up, she’d be able to discern direction, but it had set at some point unnoticed. The room was bright thanks to the torches on both sides of the apertures, but the outside was pitch-dark in contrast, and Mariela couldn’t see anything. “It’s like I’m looking at a pot of ink…” Chilly air streamed in from the glassless windows. “Huh? Wind?” Strange. There should’ve been water outside. How was air blowing in? Mariela stretched her hand through the window into the darkness, but her fingertips didn’t touch any liquid, instead grasping nothing. “There’s no water?!” When had it receded? When Mariela stretched her hand to touch the tower’s outer wall, it brushed against damp aquatic plants. They’d clearly been submerged until a short while ago. “What’s going on…?” Even if Mariela wanted to figure that out for herself, the narrow windows prevented her from sticking her head out and looking around, and the outside was dark and inky. She felt like she’d be far safer underwater with good visibility. Somewhat frightened of the black unknown, Mariela uprooted the plants her hand could reach through the empty window, and she retracted her arm. “This is harnonius. If it’s growing here, I wonder if that means the inside of the tower is safe?” Harnonius was also known as the Guardian of Waterholes. Like evergreen trees on land, it had relatively tough leaves for an aquatic plant, and its roots inhabited rocky areas and the like. It got the name Guardian of Waterholes because aquatic monsters stayed away from it. Fish monsters had been swimming outside the room above, but this space was probably safe if harnonius was growing here. Of course, now there was no water, so the fish wouldn’t be able to approach in the first place. Incidentally, harnonius was also inedible. It wasn’t poisonous, but it didn’t possess any nutrients. Despite this room being secure, Mariela knew she had to keep moving while she still had the strength to do so. Rousing herself with a “Hup!” Mariela resumed the trudge, trudge down the staircase. At last, when Mariela finally began to approach a third room, she caught the sound of a raptor going “Rar, rar!” “Is that Koo?!” Mariela hurried down. This new enclosure, which Mariela burst into, was identical to the others—a dreary place with torches burning bright red next to long and narrow windows—but in addition to the stairs continuing down, it also had a pair of doors. They were at right angles to each other, so if Mariela’s reasoning on the top floor had been correct, they were on the north and west sides. The north door’s top was rotting and damaged, and it was slightly ajar, perhaps because it couldn’t be adequately shut anymore. The west door was fully closed, but Mariela could hear Koo, who had saved her many times over in the past, from just beyond it. A bright light shone from the stairs leading farther down, so maybe there was another chamber a short way below it. “Rar, rar, raaar!” Koo’s voice wasn’t desperate, but it sounded like he was asking for help. Mariela could also hear the sound of a tail violently striking something. Perhaps the raptor was fighting something? A…an enemy?! If I had a vial or some other kinda container… If Mariela only had a flask, she could use the medicinal herbs around her waist to make a potion that could help. This chamber provided nothing the alchemist could use, but it was difficult to imagine there being no vials or vases anywhere in this giant building. Hang in there, Koo. I’ll be right back. Mariela practically tumbled down the stairs as she ran. Just as she’d thought, a room lay just below, and as a further bit of luck, it appeared to be a storage space with items scattered around. Nearly broken shelves and boxes cluttered the place. Just like the floor above, there were doors on the north and west, but both were surrounded by baggage, and she couldn’t even get near them, let alone open them. “Vials, vials… Aha!” A significant number of empty alcohol bottles lay messily in a box that had been casually left by the stairs. After choosing two that were on the small side, Mariela expanded a Transmutation Vessel. What she was about to make weren’t potions for healing people, so she didn’t need to wash the bottles. She produced the harnonius she’d plucked from the outside wall of the tower a short while ago. This plant, which warded against aquatic monsters, didn’t emit a smell that monsters hated like bromominthra. Rather, it absorbed the corrupted magical power of monsters. This made it a somewhat valuable plant that could turn a perilous stream into a pleasant spot for shrimp and fish. “Pulverize, Water, Drops of Life, Extract, Condense, Anchor Essence.” Mariela nimbly made the concoction. The process was the same as crafting a low-grade potion. Usually, she would separate the dregs, but time was precious right now, so she skipped that step and filled the bottles. “One more… Just to be on the safe side…” Mariela took the gepla seeds hanging from her waist and pulverized them in the Transmutation Vessel. “Drops of Life, Extract, Separate.” This process used neither water nor oil as a solvent. You abruptly dissolved the oil from the pulverized gepla seeds into Drops of Life and separated the remaining dregs. When the extract was transferred from the Transmutation Vessel to the container, only the Drops of Life would come out before vanishing instantly. Gepla oil didn’t possess much of the quality necessary to store Drops of Life, so even when it was dissolved in a Transmutation Vessel, it separated from the Drops of Life as soon as it was removed. This left behind only the oil. There might be too little of it. I’ll infuse it with magical power. Gepla oil was also highly sensitive to magical power. The frog monsters that liked gepla seeds were very active, emitting a fair amount of magic energy. In order to ensure its seeds would be eaten and carried far by these creatures, the gepla plant absorbed magical power to swell for a short time. This also caused its effects to strengthen. When Mariela channeled her magical power into the gepla oil, which there was only a finger’s width of in the bottom of the vial, it expanded as air bubbles formed. Once it had enlarged enough to fill seven-tenths of the vial, Mariela stopped it briefly. After adding the remaining material—the rope ivy—into the vial with the end dangling outside it, she packed dried rope ivy leaves tightly into the container as a lid. “All right, it’s complete!” The whole process had only taken a few minutes. Mariela grabbed the two completed concoctions and hurried back up the stairs. “Raaar, raaar!” “Thank goodness, he’s still okay.” Mariela could hear Koo’s voice from the other side of the west door. It seemed like he might be saying something like “Get awaaay!” He sounded really annoyed, but not exactly afraid. Just to be safe, Mariela discreetly opened the door and peeked beyond. It was pitch-dark, and she couldn’t even see stars in the night sky when she looked up, let alone water. There was no light other than that escaping through the door Mariela had opened, and it wasn’t enough to see very far. However, a stone passage barely spacious enough for a carriage to pass through continued past the door. The place seemed like the topmost part of the outer wall, with a barricade as high as Mariela’s waist flanking either side. This walkway likely connected multiple towers. If Mariela let Koo into the chamber she was in and closed the door, maybe she’d be able to keep out whatever Koo was fighting. “Koo, over here!” “Grah? Raaar!” Koo called out after noticing Mariela. He began to move in her direction, though seemingly dragging something along behind him. Koo’s silhouette was just barely visible in the light from the door, and Mariela couldn’t identify what was wrapped around him. He was violently thrashing his tail around, stomping at the thing, and trying to tear it off, but whatever it was sinuously stretched and altered its form in an attempt to swallow the raptor. “Hiii-yah!” Mariela hurled the potion made from harnonius, vial and all, at the creature. Since it only contained harnonius, it wasn’t liable to be very potent, but it was enough to make most monsters flinch and back off for an instant. Any spot the concoction touched would leech corrupted magical power out of the monster. It wasn’t fatal, but apparently, it was incredibly unpleasant. Shudder. When the thing clinging to Koo recoiled, he took the opportunity to shake it off and rushed toward Mariela. “In here, Koo. Hurry!” Mariela called to him as she opened the door so the raptor could fit through. As Koo’s shape became more distinct, the light from the room also illuminated the monster chasing him, and its form became apparent. The viscous mass, reminiscent of a slime, was a deep, ebon shade—black as night. It slithered along the floor as it chased the raptor, its bottom edge fluttering while it gave pursuit. “Eek!” “Raaar!” The shape definitely resembled a slime. However, it wasn’t transparent at all, and Mariela couldn’t tell if there was a nucleus in the pitch-black mass. The bottom of the mass, about the size of a large dog, wriggled every time it moved, like it was pulsating. On a second look, it acted as though it were a horde of small insects, and if a little bit of it was torn off, the bottom edge would immediately enfold and reabsorb it. Since Koo had been able to fight back, the monster probably wasn’t powerful, but this wasn’t a gentle creature like a slime. It was most likely a very nasty sort of being. Koo twisted his body as he leaped through the door, which was only big enough for a single person to get through at a time. At that moment, when his speed slowed, the black monster sprang at his tail. “Grr, raaah!!!” “Hey, Koo, calm down!” Because the raptor was thrashing around in repulsion, Mariela couldn’t close the door, and even the black monster clinging to his tail like mud ended up inside the tower chamber. “Rarar!” Koo’s tail whipped around so violently it was like he was saying, “Get off me already!” The recoil from his thrashing sent the ebon monster flying into the wall above the door. However, this didn’t seem to hurt it in the slightest, and it immediately began to wriggle and sidle toward Mariela and Koo again. Its movements were sluggish, though, so maybe it was weak in the light or hated fire. “Gaaah, it’s coming!” “Graaah, raraaar!” A person who opened her big mouth and let out an awkward scream, and a raptor. Although they were human and beast, they looked and acted as one. Maybe they had overcome the barrier between species, and their feelings were now united. Mariela’s plan to close the door and keep out the monster had been a failure. She was hesitant to use her one remaining potion here, so all she and Koo could do was escape before their opponent moved in. The tower had dead ends above and below them, and the black monster was crawling above the door on the west side where Koo had come through, so their only option for escape was the nearly broken northern door. “Koo, over here!” After throwing open the northern door and grabbing a torch next to it, Mariela rushed out into the dark, open air. Koo followed her and slammed the door shut with his tail. Unfortunately, the strange monster simply slinked through the fracture in the broken door and gave chase. “Pant, pant, pant.” Mariela was out of breath as she ran. She’d seen another tower to the north at the top of the one she’d awoken in. If they took refuge there, maybe this time they could shut out the black creature. Although Mariela ran at full speed, the monster was clearly getting closer. Apparently, it did move faster in darkness after all. Mariela took out her one remaining vial packed with gepla oil, lit the string dangling from the opening, and threw it at the monster. Crash. The instant the vial broke, a blaze erupted with a fiery sound. Mariela had strengthened the concoction with magical power and created a towering pillar of flame. It seemed like she’d skillfully ignited her pursuer. After wriggling and twisting, it melted like coal tar, and in the next instant, it violently burst into flame. “We made it, I think…?” The burning column blocked Mariela and Koo’s way, but its light allowed Mariela to inspect the surrounding environs. They were currently on the outer wall, right about halfway between the two towers. The one they’d come from and the one they were heading for, about the same distance away, were both visible. And, perhaps it had climbed the wall, but a black monster twice the size of the one Mariela had just defeated was in the passage leading into the tower and heading for Mariela and Koo. “What should I do…? I don’t have any more fire bottles…” Maybe it was cautious due to the blaze behind them, as the creature appeared to be looking for an opportunity to spring at Mariela and Koo. Mariela tried to make some kind of feint by thrusting out the torch in her hand, but it didn’t seem like that kind of thing would do any good. When the pillar of fire behind them went out, they might be attacked and swallowed immediately. “Grar…” Koo turned his back toward Mariela. He was probably telling her to get on. Mariela used the torch to keep the monster in check as she tried to get on Koo’s back. But Mariela had always been clumsy. There was no way the creature would overlook her many openings. The monster spread its body like a cloth billowing out in the wind and sprang at the pair to swallow them both at once. “Eek!” Mariela reflexively threw the torch she was holding. As if in response to her unusually girlish scream, the burning stick burst into powerful flames for a moment and took the form of a lizard. “Grrrr!!!” Blinding white light and hot flames surged from the salamander and assaulted the black monster. It was so dazzling that Mariela closed her eyes. When she opened them again, nothing remained of the viscous mass, and the salamander burped a bit of smoke with a “Rawr.” “Salamander, you came to save us!” “Raaar!” What a fantastic lizard the spirit was for gallantly appearing in Mariela’s time of need. Where in the world could that Spirit Eye owner be loitering around at a time like this? And here Mariela might have even forgiven him if he’d appeared during this kind of crisis. As if striking that person from her memory, Mariela lifted up the salamander, who could fit in her palms, thanked it, and put it on her shoulder. “I’m so relieved you’re here, Salamander!” “Rar, rar.” Koo agreed with Mariela’s sentiment. The salamander licked Mariela’s cheek and flopped down on her shoulder. Apparently, it was going to stay with them. The torch had gone out when the salamander had manifested, and when Mariela turned toward the pillar of flames behind them to light it again, she saw that it, too, had been extinguished. As Mariela approached the black monster’s embers to relight her torch, she saw a small stone on the ground with a speckled pattern of scarlet on white. “Pretty… That’s not a magical gem, is it? Maybe it’s that monster’s nucleus. I’m not getting any bad vibes from it, but…” Mariela retrieved the mottled stone with the torch’s tip, and after waiting for it to cool, she gently stowed it away in a pocket. No more black monsters appeared, and the group quickly made it to the next tower. Braziers burned inside this tower as well, and when Mariela pressed on the door to the tower where light was spilling from, it offered no resistance. She’d thought it was the northeast tower, but the same type of door was on the opposite side of the one they had just come through, so it was likely the east one. The structure of this one was almost identical to the southeast tower. In addition to a door to the north, it had a spiral staircase going up and down. “There aren’t any more of those things, right?” Neither of the exits in this chamber were broken. After locking the bolts on both, Mariela breathed a sigh of relief. The ebon-colored creature seemed fearful of fire, and since this room had torches burning next to the windows and entrances, those monsters probably wouldn’t enter. Unfortunately, Mariela realized they could slither down from whatever room lay above or up from the staircase below, so she couldn’t afford to take a break. “I’d better pick some harnonius.” The harnonius had worked against that black monster. The plant seemed to be growing at the top of this tower as well, so Mariela decided to head up with Koo. It took Koo less than ten minutes to run up a distance that would have taken Mariela almost an hour to cover. When the light from a room around the middle of the tower came into view, Koo suddenly went “Rar, rar!” and broke into a dash. “H-hey, wait! Koo?!” Mariela desperately clung to the raptor so she wouldn’t be thrown off. The salamander riding on her shoulder placidly enjoyed the little rodeo. From above, Mariela heard a familiar voice call, “Koo! And Mariela?” “Yuric! You’re okay!” “Raaar!” Koo and Mariela were about to leap at Yuric, but he warded the pair off with a “Whoa, whoa there!” and sidestepped. That was an animal tamer for you. “Mariela, where are we? What were those black things?” Yuric asked after calming Mariela and Koo, who were overjoyed at the reunion. “I don’t know… But I think my master is here somewhere,” Mariela answered as she hung her head. The salamander had indeed directed them here from that bog shrine. Since this strange structure was linked to that place, it probably held some relation to Mariela’s master. If so, what were those viscous entities? Something about them gave Mariela an ominous feeling. The alchemist didn’t quite understand why her master hadn’t shown up, despite the dangers that prowled this place. “I wonder if Master’s in some kind of trouble…?” As though to comfort Mariela, who was at a loss for words, the salamander on her shoulder rubbed its cheek against hers. “At any rate, this place seems safe, so how about we have somethin’ to eat and turn in for the night?” After finishing their simple meal from ingredients Koo was carrying, Mariela and Yuric decided to get some much-needed rest. 03 The sky stretched on forever, as did the earth. Mountains and sparsely growing shrubs were visible in the distance. This seemingly infinite world was filled with a vivid, peaceful atmosphere and pale light. The sky was brightening bit by bit, a signal that dawn was approaching. The instant a giant bird pecking at the ground somewhere far off lifted its head, light rapidly filled the world. As the color red came into being, she quietly watched the transformation from the back of her mother, who rode a raptor. When the woman lightly kicked the stirrups, the raptor began running like the wind. Steadily, steadily, toward the morning sun. No matter how long they ran, they couldn’t see the edge of the world, and it felt as though this scenery would stretch on forever, just like the sky. This endless wilderness where water was scarce proved harsh and merciless, but the wind that brushed her cheeks was calm and clear. It was her earliest childhood memory. The place she should return to. If she closed her eyes, she could recall it, even now. The sky’s filthy… The air above the rural settlement supposedly on the edge of the Empire always looked dull and stagnant. It was as though the sky were grimacing at the ugliness of people. She followed a path through the forest, carrying baggage too heavy for her small body. She had to hurry back. She couldn’t bear to be beaten again. Evading detection, she progressed along the woodland path and returned to a house on the village’s outskirts. “What’re you slacking off for?! No food for a blockhead like you!” Although she’d returned in a great hurry, the mistress of the abode shouted that she would go without a meal. “Hey, now. Let her eat. We’ll be in trouble if she doesn’t grow up fast and start being useful.” “Tch, I’ve looked after both of you part-beasts, parent and child. Be sure to show the gratitude your dead mother no longer can before you eat!” The one who had intervened was the woman’s husband, the head of this household that got by on animal husbandry. The husband eyed the girl nastily, as if he was appraising livestock. The girl wolfed down the bread and soup tossed her way, then ran to the animal enclosure. “Rar, grar.” “Thanks. Are ya doin’ all right?” When she entered the room, where only one raptor was kept, she crawled into the straw. She felt at ease here. It was because of her that this raptor was stabled here. So she could train it. Instructing ferocious raptors was difficult on account of their wild temperaments. People said it was impossible without particular skills. The creatures were daring enough to press forward through groups of monsters, however, so a trained raptor fetched a high price. This raptor was partly trained and still only listened to the girl. It was hardly any different from a wild animal to the married couple, so she could sleep here safely. She removed her holey shoes and transferred the copper coins hidden in the heels to a pouch concealed in the straw. Little by little, the girl was saving the money she obtained by picking it off the ground or haggling for a lower price on goods on days like today when she went out shopping. “Let’s run away after I’ve saved up a bit more.” “Rar.” She didn’t remember how exactly she’d wound up here. What she did recall was the sky and earth stretching on forever and the gentle voice of her mother. Perhaps they thought a child from a foreign country couldn’t understand their language, as this married couple had spoken freely in front of the child after her mother had died of illness. “We hired that woman because she said she had animal taming skills, but all that’s left now is this useless brat.” “Wait a minute. This kid is a female part-beast, after all. Once she’s able to use her skills, she can pay us back for all our efforts, and breeding her could be profitable, too.” After that, the husband and wife not only started pushing her around, but they also took every opportunity to tell her to hurry up and remunerate them for raising her. Even though they looked down on the child, a member of an animal tamer family, as a “part-beast,” the couple held her hostage with some sort of fabricated debt they felt she owed. Back then, the girl had been too young to do anything on her own, but she’d saved up some money for traveling expenses, and above all, she had a raptor now. “Wait for me, Mother. I promise I’ll bring ya home.” Even if it was just a keepsake—a lock of her mother’s hair—tucked away in her pocket, surely she would bring her back to the land under that sky. Unfortunately, the girl didn’t know where that place was. She remembered her mother’s final words even now. “Yuric, you are free. You can go anywhere.” Surely she’d be able to find her way to that landscape. 04 “Graraaar, grararaaar.” Koo stuck his tail through a window in the topmost floor of the east tower. Splish-splash, shake-shake. He cheerfully dangled his tail in the water. He’d been in rather high spirits since first thing this morning. Koo apparently enjoyed provoking monsters, since he used his tail as bait to entice fish monsters as he shook his body, too. “One’s comin’. Now, Koo!” “Rar!” At Yuric’s signal, the raptor pulled his tail into the room and jumped to the side of the window. Spuh-laaash. Enticed by Koo’s provocation, the fish monster that swam straight at the window plunged into the tower with an open mouth full of sharp fangs. “Gah!” Mariela, who was spacing out in the corner of the room she’d taken refuge in, let out a scream at the giant creature that flew in through the window. A massive fish monster’s jump was a little too exciting at a time when she was lost in her thoughts. Unsurprisingly, the outside was filled with water when they got up this morning, and Koo had started to fish for monsters to procure food for himself, as well as for Mariela and Yuric while he was at it. However, Mariela was curious about the dream she’d had last night, and it was distracting her. That dream was about when Yuric was a kid, huh…? Why did she dream about something like that? As Mariela thought it over, a pair of bulging eyes caught her attention, and she reflexively staggered back and fell on her backside. Owww, I squashed the materials in my pocket… Huh? The scarlet-on-white speckled stone that should have been tucked away in her pocket wasn’t there. Could she have dropped it somewhere? “Hyaaah!” Before the fish monster that plunged into the room could jump out of the opposite window, Yuric’s whip cut apart its head and torso. The sharp sound it made likewise sliced through Mariela’s thoughts. “Wow, Yuric, you’re so strong!” The fish monster still splashed around despite losing its head, and Mariela approached Yuric while observing the creature from a safe distance. “Fighting underwater’s different, but I gotta be able to do this at least. I’d say it was actually unusual for someone settin’ out for the Fell Forest to be as weak as ya.” “Ugh… That’s…probably true.” “But ya can make potions and cook, though. D’ya want to prepare this fish?” “Yeah, leave it to me!” Whether Mariela was used to Yuric’s direct speech or whether she knew she meant no ill will, Mariela began to prepare the fish monster with no regard to the abusive language. The now-headless aquatic creature was about the size of a human child. Mariela and Yuric, who were both around the same height, finished butchering the fish, and after they confirmed its liver wasn’t poisonous, they let Koo eat it. Although it didn’t suit Mariela’s tastes, the liver was quite the delicacy—one a drinker would’ve been delighted to eat. The salamander, who had transformed into a scarf for Mariela, also began munching on the liver along with Koo. As for the fish meat that Mariela and Yuric cut up, they only ate the exterior today. They thoroughly froze a portion for tomorrow, and after drying the rest, they decided to sprinkle today’s breakfast with herbs and roast it. Thankfully, there was plenty of rope ivy growing here as well, and by drying the leaves and using them as fuel, Mariela could create heat roughly equivalent to a straw-fueled fire and make a delicious roast. The oily abdomen flesh of the fish proved a little greasy to eat for breakfast. So Mariela sprinkled plenty of herbs on a portion of the back near the monster’s tail to give it a light flavor. Quite a luxury this early in the day. After Mariela threw hard bread into a Transmutation Vessel and soaked it in plenty of Drops of Life, she lightly grilled it to turn it fluffy again. Mariela had lived in poverty two hundred years ago, and this was a technique she’d worked out to make cheap, hard, stale bread tasty again. Drops of Life makes bread on the verge of being thrown out more delicious than the freshly-baked stuff. Sadly, the cheaper variety Mariela ate two centuries ago wasn’t very tasty even when fresh due to its near-total lack of any butter or eggs. But what Mariela had now was grain baked as a preserved food, which was made from plenty of butter and eggs, so when she softened it, it turned into bread as delicious as if she’d bought it from the most popular bakery in the Labyrinth City. Mariela made sandwiches using the herb-roasted fish and added a few medicinal herbs with a good texture and hardly any bitter flavor. It was a good meal, considering the meager seasoning. The salamander, who had been chowing down on the fish monster’s liver until a short while ago, opened its big mouth and looked up at Mariela to ask for a bite. Perhaps Koo was happy to be able to share a meal with Yuric and Mariela, as he cheerfully stuffed his cheeks with the dead creature’s innards. It was quite endearing. “…I’m glad we were able to meet up, Mariela.” Moreover, Mariela seemed to have reached Yuric’s heart through her stomach. Although it was merely an altered version of an existing recipe Mariela had learned from the Library, she was no less pleased. “We have a lot to do today. Let’s eat up and give it all we’ve got.” In response to Mariela, Yuric and the two creatures nodded, their cheeks filled with food. “I wonder if that building’s a temple of some sort. Maybe that’s where my master is.” “Definitely suspicious. Bet you’re right.” Mariela and Yuric were gazing at a courtyard structure from the third floor of the east tower. It had white walls and a jade roof. The complex, dome-shaped ceiling had a great many semicircles piled on each other, and it was the first time Mariela had seen this pattern. Since they were viewing it through the water, the details were blurry, but in contrast to the outer walls and towers that were covered with aquatic plants, the whiteness of the building’s walls probably meant there weren’t any growing on it. It was an extremely conspicuous building that clearly housed something important. Towers surrounded the temple, and a three-story outer wall likely connected them. The passage Mariela had moved through to reach the east tower last night was at the roof level of the outer wall, and they were currently one floor down from there on the tower’s third floor. This room had no stairs going down to the second floor, and the doors on the north and south side led to hallways. The torches next to the hallways’ windows kept things bright. This particular corridor resembled an archive in some respects, with paintings depicting everyday life and adventurers fighting monsters. The passages were also decorated with common furnishings that seemed affordable for even an average household. Though the group explored to the ends of the hallways, the third floor of the southeast tower Mariela had first woken up in was packed with baggage and wouldn’t open, and the northeast tower seemed to be flooded, if the sound that knocking on its door produced was anything to go on. Apparently, Mariela and the others wouldn’t be able to leave the east tower until nighttime when the water receded. Just as with the southeast tower, the third floor of the east tower had tableware and other miscellaneous items. But unlike the somewhat nostalgic feeling of the southeast tower, this place provided more unusual odds and ends such as perfume bottles with faint scents, classy-looking alcohol bottles that seemed to be filled with cheap booze, and silverware that was worn out despite being thoroughly cared for. Who on earth did all this stuff belong to? It’s like I’m looking at someone’s past… Mariela, feeling a little guilty, gathered up only the containers needed to replenish her supply of fire bottles and monster-warding potions. Their next goal was the northeast tower. If they waited in the third-floor hallway, they could probably enter it right after sunset. The outside scenery grew clearer as the sun went down, and the color of the sky changed. When Mariela stared fixedly at the landscape becoming less discernable as the light dimmed, she found the ocean outside didn’t sink like the water in a bathtub flowing out after someone removed the plug; instead, it vanished along with the sun. They were able to turn the doorknob, and they opened the door to the northeast tower before the sun had set entirely. The strange sea was still visible but was more like a thick mist now. “There are…no stairs going down.” “The door to the west passage is broken.” This chamber had several shelves and boxes as well, and women’s clothes and decorations in brilliant colors peeked out from broken crates. There seemed to be letters and cosmetics, too, but all of them were wet and unusable. “Mariela, stay there. I’ll be right back.” The door on the west side had come off, and Yuric quickly ran toward it to check what lay beyond. When Mariela and Koo peeked through, they saw the setting sun shining at the end of the misty corridor. I can’t see it very well, but is the hallway cut off? …Huh? Where are the torches? Up until they’d arrived at the northeast tower, there’d been lit braziers in the corridors, yet any in this room or the passage ahead had all been extinguished. Water had flooded the place, after all. It was natural for the fire to have gone out, but the torches in the rooms up to this point had burned constantly despite lacking fuel. So it wouldn’t have been strange for those here to be lit despite any deluge. Mariela felt uncomfortable that neither this chamber nor the western hallway had lit torches. Boom. As if to blow away Mariela’s unease, a blaze erupted at the end of the passage. Yuric had probably used a fire bottle. The last hints of the strange ocean vanished, and things outside went wholly dark. Mariela had no doubt a black monster had appeared. She climbed onto Koo’s back so she could be ready to escape at any time. The salamander, who migrated to the top of the raptor’s head, illuminated the room for them. “The hallway’s useless. It’s collapsed halfway through. And there’s a ton of black monsters!” Yuric returned and swiftly mounted Koo. The raptor began to run up the stairs as though he’d been waiting for the two of them to get on, and they went up to the fourth floor, where there was an outer wall passage. “Whoa! Here, too!” The room connected to the outer walls on the fourth floor had no lit torches, either. The door on the west side had come off, and more of those strange, obsidian creatures packed the hallway beyond it as Mariela’s group approached. Since these monsters’ entire bodies were dark and soft, Mariela couldn’t tell whether there were many small ones or one gigantic one, but in any case, they were closing in like a shadowy flood, and it seemed like the little band would be swallowed in an instant if they didn’t make an escape immediately. “Yuric, should we go up?!” “We can’t! At this rate, we dunno if up is any safer!” “B-but there are monsters to the south, too…!” A number of the black things were in the outer wall passage beyond the door Koo had skillfully opened with his forelegs, which led back to the east tower. Perhaps they’d climbed up along the wall, and just like on the west side, their numbers were steadily increasing, although not yet enough to fill the passage. Should Mariela and Yuric escape to the upper floor or go back to the east tower? There were monsters along the path they’d taken here, and the upper floor was a dead end. It was hard to imagine any of Mariela and Yuric’s companions being holed up in a place like this. “Damn it, I didn’t think there’d be this many. None of the idiots in the Black Iron Freight Corps would laze around in a place like this! Let’s use a fire bottle and run through!” “Got it! I’m gonna throw one, so we’ll rush out the second the fire goes up!” Mariela took out a fire bottle, used the salamander to light it, and then flung it toward the passage with a “Hii-yah!” Considering Mariela had been the one to toss it, the container was well aimed, and it landed several steps past the door and created a low but wide conflagration. Some of the inky monsters recoiled from the sudden blaze, and an evident opening for egress presented itself. Yuric took that opening to urge Koo forward. The raptor ducked under the door, and with this low profile, he flew into the passage like a bullet. With his first step outside, he put strength into his legs to make a running approach and leap over the blaze. Just then… “! Above us?!” It must have gone up the tower wall and avoided the flames. A black monster dropped down from overhead. Yuric snapped it with her whip and the salamander burned it, causing it to fall below the outer wall, but the raptor stopped on the spot, and in that opening, another monster dropped down from above. “Wah, nooo!” “Hey, Mariela, calm down!” Yuric tried to knock down the new creature with her lash, but she couldn’t move well because Mariela was brandishing a fire bottle behind her and getting in the way. Although the salamander had the power to burn the inky monster, it couldn’t blow it away, so a blazing lump fell toward Mariela’s group. If Mariela and Yuric hadn’t been on his back, Koo probably could have flicked away the strange creature with his tail, but if he made a complete turn with Mariela on him, she’d be tossed off with the monster. There was nothing they could do. Just when the burning black monster was about to fall on their heads… “Wind Edge marks the entrance of: Magnificent Me! What-ho!” Conveniently appearing in Mariela’s time of need was the special right of someone worthy to be called a hero. Yet for some reason, the one who blew away the black monster with a blade of air and jumped down from a slightly higher part of the tower to land in front of Mariela’s group was Edgan the dual wielder. “Edgan?! Where’d you come from?” “So an idiot was lazin’ around in a place like this.” “Whoa, Yuric, don’t you think that’s a bit harsh?!” Yuric’s cold reception after Edgan had saved her and Mariela from peril pierced Edgan’s broken heart. “And here I’d come down the tower to save you guys. Geez, you’re gonna make me cry.” Evidently, Edgan had somehow run down the wall from a window at the top of the tower. There were protrusions, windows, and aquatic plants he could hang on to, but it was almost like a straight drop. Edgan sure could be nimble. Was this what you could expect from an A-Ranker? Or was he just a monkey? As he said things like “You’re gonna make me cry,” Edgan cut the falling black monster in two with a wind blade he sent out from his dual swords and then dropped to the bottom of the wall. “At least you saved us. You comin’ with us, Edgan?” Feeling it would be reassuring to have Edgan with them, Mariela nodded firmly at Yuric’s suggestion, but… “Uhhh, I can’t? Y’see, things are gonna start getting crazy soon. So do you wanna try getting crazy with me here?” “Wait a minute, I don’t understand what you’re sayin’.” “Don’t worry, Yuric. I don’t get it, either.” Edgan was talking nonsense. Given the mystery of their surroundings, it was hardly appreciated, and even Mariela shot Edgan a stern look. Edgan turned his ever-smiling face toward Mariela and Yuric, pointed his swords northwest, and declared, “You’ll understand what I mean once you see for yourselves.” There was moonless, starless darkness. The tower lights had gone out, and the faint glow from the hallways leading to the north and south towers didn’t reach the north wall. Mariela couldn’t see anything but the heavy shadows stretching out before her. However, Yuric, whose eyesight was strengthened by magic, spotted a mass of black monsters gathering around the northern wall, which had collapsed in such a way that it looked like it had been gouged out. And something formless and darker than night, more ebon than darkness itself, was about to close in on the interior of the excised outer wall from its opposite side. “Uh…what? That’s…?” “Don’t know.” Yet another sort of unknown being was advancing toward Mariela’s group. Yuric shuddered, her instincts telling her that whatever this creature was, it wasn’t good. Edgan watched the entity with a tense expression. Perhaps because of how he usually conducted himself, he appeared composed and not particularly serious. He didn’t convey a sense of danger at all to Mariela, who could only see darkness. “That murky thing with the bad vibes is gonna rush in here any minute, and when those black slime-looking things slurp it up, a ton more of the slime things’ll be generated in a big rush. I’m telling you, it’s totally nuts.” “…What I got from that is you’re a moron, Edgan. So why are we sticking around for this slime madness, exactly?” Edgan’s explanation had not a hint of urgency to it, but he understood the situation. In response to Yuric’s question, Edgan gave a light laugh and a reply. “Well, if we don’t hold ’em back here, the slime-looking things’ll probably get to be too much and enter the building. That’s why I’ll lure ’em over here so you guys can enter the temple and find a way for us to get out of this place.” “Edgan, that’s…” “Ya really are a moron…” Could it be that Mariela’s group had only been able to escape to a safe tower and sleep through the night unharmed because Edgan had lured the black monsters here and fought them? Without breathing a word of confirmation, Edgan turned his back toward Mariela and Yuric before saying, “Well then, I’m counting on you,” with an air like he was heading out to a shop where a young lady was working. Was he actually an unexpected hero? “Take this! Those things seem weak to fire!” “Ooh, thanks!” After receiving the fire bottles, the harnonius monster-warding potions, and the bag of emergency rations Yuric tossed to him, Edgan ran toward the western corridor where the black monsters were crowded together. “Let’s go, Mariela!” “Okay! …Wait. This is…” Mariela jumped down from Koo’s back and picked up the small stones that had tumbled to his feet. There were some with a speckled green-and-bluish-purple pattern on golden brown, and one with scarlet speckles on white, like the one she’d had before. They were such perfect spheres that they looked like candy, not like a type of rock you would find scattered around at all. After Mariela stowed them away in her pouch, she got back onto Koo. “Mind usin’ one more fire bottle?” “All right, here I go!” “Rar!” Mariela threw a fire bottle as hard as she could, and the raptor leaped over the blaze that came from it. Perhaps the salamander was protecting its friends from the flames, as the path of fire that held the inky creatures at bay didn’t feel all that hot to Mariela’s group. “Let’s get to the southeast tower!” “Yeah! Maybe it’ll have stairs leading down!” Edgan may have been luring the monsters, as there were fewer of them the farther south they went. When Mariela looked toward the northeast tower where Edgan was, she sometimes spotted a light burning in the darkness. “He’s using the fire bottles…” “…Edgan’s stubborn.” That was Edgan for you. If it got truly perilous, he’d probably run away, but they couldn’t waste the time he was giving them. Mariela’s group passed through the east tower and returned to the southeast one just as Mariela used the last fire bottle. 05 “Hmm, the stairs down are suuuper conspicuous.” “That’s random.” The third floor of the southeast tower, where Mariela had woken up, was a place that perfectly matched the name storage room. It was packed with boxes, shelves, and other things in a variety of sizes. Mariela had missed it the first time she’d entered the room because she’d been frantically helping Koo, but the steps down to the second floor in this room were hidden under an enormous box. The chamber had several crates that were taller than Mariela and Yuric, and there were others of a size for storing wine piled up in the vicinity. There was so much stuff, it left hardly any place to stand. Even if Mariela and Yuric tried to push boxes to move them, there was nowhere for them to go. And even if they wanted to break them, Yuric’s whip would get entangled with the other baggage when she raised it. Moreover, the hallways leading north and west were similarly stuffed with miscellany. “There are empty alcohol bottles in them? And, huh, there’s potion vials. Are these old clothes?” Unlike in the east tower, this place had many goods that ordinary people used, particularly the poor. Looking over the objects, Mariela had the distinct feeling she’d seen them before. Since she’d used their last fire bottle, she was grateful for the empty alcohol bottles, which enabled her to make new ones. With just these, it seemed she could Fire to her heart’s content. “What’s in this huge box? If Donnino was here, he could destroy it, but the best the two of us can do is remove the things blocking the north side.” It didn’t seem like Mariela and Yuric could get to the floor below, and they had no choice but to head to the west side to look for other stairs and defeat monsters as they went through the fourth-floor passage. If they hadn’t replenished their fire bottles, it doubtlessly would’ve been an impossible trek. “Let’s hurry and go collect medicinal herbs. Hold on tight, Mariela.” “Okay, I got iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!” Although she’d replied “I got it,” Mariela had just a slight feeling of regret—“I didn’t get it at all”—as she swayed violently on the raptor’s back. It was all she could do to close her mouth as she bounced about so she wouldn’t bite her tongue. Although Yuric had regarded Edgan rather frigidly, it seemed she might be more worried about him than was first apparent. Or perhaps she was concerned about their other comrades, who surely had to be somewhere on the west side of this gigantic citadel. By the time they reached the floor where the gepla fruit grew, Mariela was completely exhausted and not at all in a condition to harvest it. Yuric had a slender build not much different from Mariela’s, and she didn’t appear to have much in the way of muscle, so what in the world was the difference between them? Yuric’s animal taming skills? She wasn’t a member of the Black Iron Freight Corps for nothing. “Mariela, ya should rest a bit.” Yuric built up a pile of aquatic plants in front of Mariela, who had collapsed on the floor. Yuric gathered up everything growing in the vicinity of the gepla fruit on the outer wall of the tower. This provided Mariela with far more weeds than anything else, though there were a few edible greens mixed in. Hopefully, Mariela could use them as soup ingredients after they had been dried. Was there a point to me coming here? As Mariela pondered this, the mountain of aquatic plants continued growing. Apparently, Yuric used her whip to grab the ones beyond her reach. Aquatic plants probably all looked the same to her. “Hey, Mariela. Hurry and make some more of those fire bottles,” Yuric instructed with a sidelong glance at the mountain of aquatic plants. It seemed like it would be an enormous task just to sort them all out. Yuric was tough. This was good training for Mariela, who had grown lazy from Sieg spoiling her. “Rawr har.” Something appeared to have pleased the salamander, as it was happily shaking its tail back and forth. “Ugh, fiiine…” Resigning herself, Mariela set about sorting the aquatic plants and making fire bottles while rubbing her behind, sore from riding on the wild raptor. Yuric had plucked an unthinkable quantity of vegetation, but it took hardly any time for Mariela to complete as many fire bottles as they could load onto Koo. Since the explosive concoctions were between low-grade and mid-grade, Mariela could make them in the blink of an eye. Even when the time it took to sift through the stack of herbs was factored in, the entire process took less than two hours. It was very easy to first Crystallize and remove the medicinal herbs, then dry the remaining aquatic plants and the gepla seeds and stir them with wind power while sorting them all at once. No more than a few hours could have passed since reaching this southeast tower, collecting the gepla seeds, making fire bottles, and returning to the fourth floor. Yet… “Huh…? It’s already dawning!” Could the flow of time be distorted here? It had remained dark for a standard period last night, so it should still be nighttime now, yet it was clearly lightening outside, and the water was already returning. “Is there some kinda condition that makes morning come?” Yuric pondered. “If we’re talking about something that was different today… Edgan?” “Yeah. Somethin’ about him using a Fire Dance to handle all the monsters?” Had Edgan gained a means to manipulate time? This is where one would usually say something like “That’s an A-Ranker for you,” but… “No way Edgan actually did somethin’.” “Yeah. But the black monsters disappear in the morning, so Edgan gets to rest, too.” “!!! That’s it!” Yuric exclaimed after Mariela’s offhand comment. “The black monsters didn’t disappear when morning came; morning comes early like this when they’re defeated!” This world’s nights and the ebon creatures were connected. If the monsters weren’t all slain, the day wouldn’t come until it did under normal circumstances, and when morning arrived and water filled the place, the inky things vanished. On the first day, they hadn’t known the black monsters’ weakness, so Edgan had probably battled them all night, but today, Yuric informed him of their vulnerability and gave him fire bottles. Edgan could put magical elements in his swords, but he didn’t have a lot of magical power, since he wasn’t a mage. However, if he made liberal use of the fire bottles, it was possible to quickly take out those black monsters. That’s what Yuric reasoned, anyway. “Yeah, this world’s so weird, it wouldn’t be strange for something like that to happen. But if so… That means Edgan actually made the night end after all?” “Ugh… When ya put it like that, it makes it sound like he did it intentionally, and that kinda irritates me.” “He definitely seems like he’d go ‘Mwa-ha-ha, I’m the king of the night!’” Edgan, king of the night. Mariela felt like that title was appropriate for a different sort of reason, but considering he’d traveled with Mariela to escape his women troubles, it might’ve been more apt to call him a slave of the night. “If we said somethin’ like that to Edgan, he’d call himself a god of the night, never mind a king. Since he’s always playin’ women, I think fraud of the night would be more fittin’. It’d be nice if he played with fire instead and burned himself out.” Edgan might have been in perfect form last night, but Yuric still had quite the wicked tongue when it came to that man. Although Mariela twitched just a little, all she could do was respond with a fake smile. “Ha, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Well, I’m certain the fire was really effective. Oh…” “What is it?” The word fire made Mariela recall something: Neither the third nor the fourth floor of the tower where Edgan was had any lit torches. “Say, Yuric. Torches are lit at regular spots along the wall in this room, right? I wonder if they create a barrier that repels those black creatures. One that was stuck to Koo got in here, so it’s probably not totally safe, but…” Mariela recalled the monster that had burst into this room clinging to Koo clearly moved more sluggishly in here. “I see… So we can judge what places are safe by the torches?” “Yeah, probably.” “Fire, huh…?” Mariela likely wasn’t the only one who felt like the blazes were some kind of symbol. “Right now, we should do what we can. Let’s clear a path in the passage leadin’ north on the third floor.” As though her mood had shifted entirely, Yuric laid out a plan. If they tidied up the baggage on the third level of the southeast tower, they’d secure a pathway through the east tower to the northeast one where Edgan was. Since this passage had torches lit at fixed intervals, Mariela and Yuric wanted to secure it as a safe route. While they were at it, it seemed prudent to leave more fire bottles and food for Edgan. “Leavin’ stuff’s a good idea. If we put the grub by a window in the hallway, I think the smell will draw him over.” “…Is he an animal or something?” Strange days and environs, but Yuric was still the same. After preparing fire bottles and food for Edgan, it was time for Mariela’s group to have dinner, too. Since they’d collected a subspecies of gepla seeds in the east tower that could be used as cooking oil, they had fried fish-monster sandwiches and soup made from dried fish and the aquatic plants they’d collected not long ago. “I get the feelin’ those black monsters are absorbin’ somethin’ when they stick to you.” Yuric clenched and unclenched her hand as she noisily chewed on her sandwich. Apparently, she’d fought a black monster that had clung to her before she met up with Mariela. “Absorbing…blood? Or magical power?” “Neither. I dunno what, but I feel like it was somethin’ important.” Come to think of it, a black monster had been stuck to Koo, too. They appeared to do that to living creatures and suck something out of them. “Grar.” Whether or not he understood, Koo made a sound like he agreed. The way he did made it seem like he was saying, “It got meee,” which was adorable. It made Mariela want to comfort him, so she said, “Just a little bit, okay?” and gave him a piece of dried fish. “Rar!” Koo immediately brightened. As far as Mariela could tell, it didn’t look like anything substantial had been taken from the raptor, but it was probably better to proactively burn the inky creatures. “I’m kinda sleepy now…” Mariela’s eyelids grew heavy soon after she filled her stomach. “Your internal clock probably thinks it’s the middle of the night. We should sleep a bit.” The night had shortened, but would the day become proportionately longer? Not knowing what time it really was made Mariela feel restless. The third floor of the southeast tower was a mess of many boxes, and the cluttered, cramped feeling was a bit nostalgic. Mariela curled up in a gap within the chaos, and the salamander, who had come to her unnoticed, nestled up to her stomach and made it feel nice and warm. Mariela fell asleep the moment she closed her eyes. 06 The sky stretched on forever, as did the earth. Mountains and sparsely growing shrubs were visible in the distance. Things seemed to continue to infinity. A single herbivore, perhaps one that had lost its herd, was devoured by several carnivores, and an underfed bird fluttered through the air in search of scraps. That unbound place was undoubtedly challenging and cruel, but free at the same time. She’d seen a place like that when she was very young. She had made her escape to find her way back to that place she saw whenever she closed her eyes, but… “The sky’s so cramped.” “Rar.” When she looked up from the slums of the imperial capital where buildings crowded together, things seemed narrow. It made Yuric sad to think this place couldn’t completely satisfy even the sky. Growl. “I’m hungry… Wanna go catch some rats?” “Rar…” Before she arrived at the imperial capital with the first raptor she’d ever trained, Yuric had believed she could find that place from her childhood as long as she had a raptor. Yet she didn’t even know where it was. Yuric had come to the imperial capital to get information on its whereabouts, but her meager traveling money had dried up. The young Yuric didn’t know whether or not she could get work training raptors, and she had limited combat abilities. Even with her raptor, finding work was going to be tough. The only adults Yuric had encountered were those who had pressed her to sell the raptor, or worse, ones who either tried to take the raptor by force or trick Yuric. If this had been a village close to a forest rather than the imperial capital, she probably could have caught forest animals to satisfy her hunger. That’s why she and the raptor had been able to eat their fill before they arrived at the capital. However, the imperial capital simply had a great many people, and even if she went out to the forest about a day’s journey away, it didn’t have decent game. Perhaps the humans had hunted any easily caught prey to extinction, as the rest had fled to a faraway forest. The only option for hunting in the imperial capital was the unsanitary rats that crawled through the slums. Yuric aside, the raptor had a big body, and the rats didn’t sate its hunger at all. “Rar, rar.” The raptor nuzzled its face against Yuric. It seemed to be saying, “I’m hungry. Let’s go to the forest. There’s nothing but bad humans here.” Yuric hugged the creature tight. “That’s right, this isn’t the place we’re lookin’ for.” But where should they go? The weather was still warm, and if they went to the forest, they would have no trouble getting food in a day or two. But the woods had no eaves to keep out the rain and no walls to protect from monsters. Besides, what about when winter arrived? Hunger, and the uneasy feeling of an uncertain tomorrow. The only thing the young Yuric could do was nestle close to the raptor and curl up in a nook in the slums. She must have fallen asleep at some point. “Rarar.” After the raptor shook her awake, Yuric opened her eyes in response to its cry and saw the creature with a delighted expression and a chubby, dead chicken on the ground. This plumpness meant it wasn’t wild. It had clearly been raised to be eaten. “How did you…?” When Yuric used her taming skills to feel around for the raptor’s thoughts, she discovered it had apparently attacked a village on the outskirts of the imperial capital before dawn and stolen the chicken from there. Most likely, its hunger had led it to eat many more, as the raptor’s mouth was wet with blood, and Yuric could sense the creature’s full stomach. “Rar!” “It’s tasty! Eat! I caught and brought it for you.” This animal, which didn’t know it had done something improper, gazed innocently at Yuric as if it wanted praise for bringing meat to its hungry master. “What…? You… It’s because I’m inexperienced…” Although young, Yuric knew right from wrong. A savage beast like a raptor would hunt without a command from its keeper. Yuric understood how dangerous that was. Even if she was asleep, attacking other people’s livestock as it pleased was… No matter how hungry Yuric was, even if the raptor had been thinking of her, she wouldn’t be forgiven. A fully trained beast didn’t assail or eat something without its master’s permission. The young, lonely Yuric’s training may have been too trusting and lacked strictness. Fortunately, as far as Yuric could see in the raptor’s memories, it hadn’t attacked any humans. Apparently, the farmer who came running at the racket had startled the beast, and it had fled here with this chicken in its mouth. If it doesn’t know the taste of human flesh, I don’t think it’ll be killed, but… There was no way Yuric had the money to reimburse for the lost chickens. If she was caught, she would have no choice but to relinquish the raptor. “Found it! Over here!” Just when Yuric was pondering running away, the sound of dogs barking and the shouts of men who seemed to be adventurers reached Yuric’s ears. “Raptor! Let’s go!” Yuric immediately jumped on the creature’s back to leave the place behind. “Nice try, chicken thief!” a man exclaimed. A stone came flying at Yuric. “Gah!” She didn’t know how powerful an adventurer the man was. Regardless, an adult had hurled a rock about the size of a fist at Yuric, who was still a child. The stone hit her left shoulder with a sickening crack, and she fell off the raptor. “Strike! Once more!” “Rar!” The raptor, angry that its master had been injured, rushed at the adventurer with its teeth bared. This man probably wasn’t especially strong. He couldn’t deal with the raptor’s speed and the way it opened its mouth to bite him, and all he did was recoil and cry, “Waugh!” “N-no… Stop, raptor!” If it attacked a human here, there was no turning back for the creature. If it struck a person without a command from its master, experienced the taste of human flesh, and learned it could overpower people, retraining it would be difficult. Sooner or later, it would probably be caught and culled. Yuric had frantically stopped the raptor, but the adventurer, utterly ignorant of her efforts, began to beat the animal that had suddenly halted with his sword’s sheath, and his comrades who came running threw a net over the animal so it couldn’t escape. “This thing nearly gave me a heart attack! Grah, how d’you like this?! Grah, just try to bite me again!” The adventurer used his scabbard to beat the captive animal. “Rar, rar, rar…” “Stop! It can’t fight back! Stop it, stop it!” Holding her broken left shoulder, Yuric clung to the raptor, and the adventurer grabbed the front of her shirt and lifted her up. “What was that, you little shit? You’re its owner, thief!” “I’ll apologize! I’ll pay them back! So please…” “Hey, isn’t this brat an animal tamer? We can make some good coin if we sell that kid.” “Oh yeah? I didn’t know ’cause he’s all dirty, but I bet we can get a lot more money from that than what we’d get from the chicken thief request.” “’Ey, I know a slave trader who’ll buy.” Yuric had to escape. These adventurers had no intention of listening to her, and at this rate, the raptor and Yuric would be sold apart. As Yuric fought desperately to loosen the hand that was gripping her, the adventurer’s fist swung down at her. “Quit strugglin’.” Bam, whack. The man’s fist mercilessly struck her, ripped her worn-out clothing, and threw her to the ground. She’d managed to escape his grip, but after being hit so hard, Yuric couldn’t even get up. “Hey, ain’t this a girl?” “Hmm? Ooh, this’ll be a profitable one. She’s still a brat, but females fetch a high price!” The men’s hearty, vulgar laughter reverberated. Filthy, foul people. I have to escape, no matter what it takes… The fallen raptor caught in the net lay in Yuric’s blurry line of sight. “Rar…” It, too, had been beaten and injured, yet it seemed to be worried about Yuric as it gazed at her. She slowly stretched out her hand toward the raptor. After being struck countless times and thrown to the ground, Yuric found that her right hand was wet from blood, perhaps from a cut somewhere. The raptor understood Yuric’s intention after seeing her reach for it, and it twisted its body to push its forehead toward Yuric. The adventurers were probably busy contriving to sell Yuric and the raptor. They didn’t notice Yuric writing some sort of bloody letters on the raptor’s forehead. I did it… All she had to do now was give the Order. Yuric was still inexperienced as an animal tamer. Still, there was no doubt she had inherited this ability, which only the members of the borderland tribe possessed, along with that landscape she’d seen when she was very young. The raptor, strengthened and turned savage by the animal tamer blood, would unquestionably devour the likes of these brutish adventurers. Yuric simply had to give the command. The Order to Go Wild, My Children and devour these humans. Although if she gave this instruction, there would be no turning back for either Yuric or the raptor. “G… Go… Wild, My…” Yuric’s field of vision was blurry. She didn’t want to kill people. She didn’t want to make the raptor devour people. She just wanted to find her way back to that place…that horizon, the only thing remaining in her memory. So why… “I think you’ve gone far enough.” Before Yuric could send the raptor into a frenzy, a lone figure emerged from an alley in the slums. “What was that, asshole?” “What’s with this guy?” The adventurers drew their swords and threatened the man who’d suddenly entered the fray. “You had best let this drop. I’ve called the guards. They’ll probably be here at any moment. If you try to make a child like this a slave unjustly, you’ll wind up forced into servitude yourselves when you’re caught.” The man didn’t seem to have a weapon, yet he didn’t hesitate to approach the adventurers with their swords drawn. With a mask hiding his face and a hood low over his eyes, he had an intimidating air, suggesting he wasn’t an ordinary citizen. With seemingly no opening to take advantage of, the adventurers exchanged looks. Clearly, they thought the man was bluffing. There was no way guards would come to the slums. However, someone in the distance was definitely shouting, “Mr. Guaaard, this way, this way!” “Hey, let’s get outta here.” “Tch, count yerself lucky!” Even if the guard was a lie, the man seemed to have other comrades. Causing even more of a commotion wasn’t a good plan. The adventurers sheathed their swords and retreated in a hurry. “Well now, they’re the ones who should count themselves lucky. Can you stand? Ahh, they got your shoulder? Heal.” After helping Yuric to her feet, the masked man used restorative magic on her broken left shoulder. The voice calling for help appeared to have been a child putting on a performance, as he received a reward from the masked man and immediately disappeared into an alley. “…Why did ya help us?” Yuric asked doubtfully. Somehow, she had a hunch this savior of hers wasn’t a bad person. But the disguised hero had perceived what she’d been about to do. “Because it would be troubling for a raptor to go into a frenzy here. You seem to be inexperienced. Causing a disturbance in the slums would be a nuisance to the other residents. Look, your raptor is very intimidating. Do me a favor and calm it down.” Now that the masked man mentioned it, the raptor had grown very agitated because Yuric’s own anger had influenced it. The animal breathed wildly through its nose as it bared its fangs, and it seemed ready to indiscriminately accost even the man who had saved them. “Calm down, calm down. It’s all right now. Thank you for trying to save me. Thank you, it’s all right now…” “Rar…” Yuric soothed the raptor as she removed the net and gave it plenty of pets on the head. Both Yuric and her animal companion were beaten and bruised, but the masked man’s simple healing magic helped them recover quickly. Thankfully, since those adventurers had intended to catch and sell the raptor, they hadn’t injured it in any significant way. “Now, this raptor is the one that attacked the chicken coop, correct? If I let you two off now, I’m sure it will cause more trouble. At this point, I believe the best plan is to quietly repay those you’ve wronged.” The masked man had a point. But the only things Yuric could pay with were herself or the raptor. She hung her head. In response, Yuric’s savior proposed, “Hmm, if this raptor can work, you can repay your debt in no time. Since its lack of complete training is evident, it can labor together with its animal tamer. That seems best. I’ll handle the negotiations for you and get things set up.” The masked man arranged it so that Yuric and the raptor would work on that farm on the imperial capital’s outskirts for about a month. The raptor got to eat the intestines of any livestock that was processed into raw meat. When weak monsters attacked the farm, the raptor would kill and devour them, too. It wasn’t going hungry anymore. Regular meals had thankfully calmed the creature, as the raptor not only protected the livestock from monsters, but it also began pulling wagons and allowing humans other than Yuric to ride it. No longer needing to supervise the raptor constantly, Yuric trained the homestead’s watchdogs in her free time and performed medical examinations on the barnyard animals. She was even asked to come back for more work after she’d repaid her debt. By the time Yuric’s deficit was squared away, the raptor’s training had been completed. Now, even without Yuric, it would obey the stock farmer and wouldn’t go around snatching other people’s chickens. “Please be good to the raptor.” “Yes, we’ll treat it with great care.” “Rar.” Yuric knew the raptor couldn’t live in the imperial capital with her. She didn’t even possess the means to provide daily food for it. Understanding this, Yuric decided to leave the raptor in the farmer’s care and return to the imperial capital alone, though the farmer made it plain that she was welcome back any time. “Hello, Yuric. Good job at the farm. I know I said, ‘If you have nowhere to go after you’ve finished your task, you should come to me,’ but I’m surprised you actually came. I heard the stock farmer tried to convince you to stay.” “Visitin’ the place every now and then’ll be enough. I look forward to livin’ with ya, Franz.” Yuric returned to the slums and lived with the masked man. It was as though she’d been drawn to the bestial nature hidden under his facade. Yuric was an animal tamer. She felt her instincts would develop more by living with a beast. This guy isn’t a bad person. I want to return to that place someday. But right now… Yuric’s intuition seemed to be correct. She’d lived with animals, as an animal, ever since she lost her mother. For the first time, Yuric now had a place she could go home to and a brief, humanlike peace. 07 …Another dream about Yuric? It felt so real. Mariela awoke in the baggage-packed third floor of the southeast tower. “…Another nostalgic dream. Why had I forgotten…?” Yuric seemed to have risen at the same time, as she sat up while rubbing her eyes. She mentioned something about a sentimental vision. Could it have been the same one Mariela just had? While not certain, Mariela believed that was so. She sat up to listen. It seemed like the pouch at her waist had come open unnoticed, as some of its contents had fallen out—hand towel, potion vials that had been repacked with medicinal crystals, a small folding knife for cooking. In addition to items such as those, the golden-brown stones had come free. “Uh…?” The scarlet-on-white rock was gone again. Thinking it had rolled somewhere, Mariela searched the area, but it was like it had simply vanished, as she couldn’t find it. “Mariela? What is it?” “U-um. It’s the white stone…” That’s all Mariela said as she took a long, hard look at Yuric’s face. Pale skin and white hair. Yuric’s scarlet eyes shining from amid such light colors seemed bizarre. Mariela thought she was beautiful, but her appearance made her seem very nearly a wild animal. These were the colors of an animal tamer. Weren’t they just like those white stones with scarlet mixed in? “…Say, Yuric. The dream you said you had, was it about meeting Franz in the imperial capital?” Mariela asked to confirm her belief. “Yeah. Was I sleep talkin’?” Mariela knew it. Yuric had said, “I get the feelin’ those black monsters are absorbin’ somethin’ when they stick to you.” And they’d obtained scarlet-on-white stones reminiscent of Yuric from defeated black monsters. Now those stones were gone, and Mariela had a dream about Yuric’s past. A vision Yuric herself had said she’d forgotten. “These rocks are memories the black monsters stole…” When one of those creatures had clung to Yuric, it absorbed recollections of her past. The stolen memories became a stone in the monster, and after defeating it, they returned to Mariela and Yuric. The recollections that turned into rocks became dreams and were restored, but Yuric herself wasn’t the only one who saw them; Mariela, who slept next to her, did, too. “Hmm, guess anythin’ goes in a world like this. Still, it’s all a bit much to take in.” After hearing Mariela’s explanation, Yuric gazed at the golden-brown stones with a troubled expression. “Yeah. Sorry I peeped at your past like that… Next time we get a stone, I’ll make sure to sleep in a different room.” Yuric waved her hand and said, “I don’t mind. I was just surprised,” in response to Mariela’s apology. “But if that’s how it is, why are these stones still here? And whose are they in the first place?” “Hmm. Judgin’ from the colors, I think they’re Edgan’s. As for why they’re still here, it’s ’cause he didn’t sleep near us…maybe?” They’d learned all sorts of things, but plenty of uncertainties still remained. Before Mariela had found Yuric, the monsters the salamander defeated didn’t drop any stones. Did they simply not have any, or could there be some requirement for them to drop the rocks? “If that’s true, it’s good we defeated those things. I’m glad we made lots of fire bottles!” Yuric gripped a fire bottle tightly. She seemed to like fire. Behind them, Koo went “Rar!” and raised his tail, and even the salamander went “Rawr!” and blew flame from its mouth. Everyone was raring to go. Mariela needed to be the calm one and responsibly manage the remaining fire bottles. A person who appeared cool, vigorous, and had an extremely wicked tongue. Up to now, that’s how Mariela saw Yuric, and she’d felt it was only natural for a member of the Black Iron Freight Corps to be like that, but now Yuric seemed a little sweeter. “…I was pretty surprised. I didn’t know you were a girl.” If she hadn’t had those dreams, she probably wouldn’t have noticed. Certainly, Yuric was slender and graceful, but because of her sharp tongue and the way she could control raptors at will, Mariela had just assumed she was a boy. “It’s a secret, okay?” Now, even Yuric putting her index finger to her lips and saying that sort of thing seemed adorable to Mariela.
Chapter 195
71 min read